This editorial was just published in this month's new edition of Vape News Magazine Vaping on the Outside: The Passionate Vaper

Ever since my Uncle John Oser passed away on Veteren’s Day 2013, I’ve always felt that it was his death from stage-4 lung cancer and the fact that he had smoked for 50 years that propelled my passion into vaping and making sure that others had the right to do so. That has included my boyfriend who has been at least a year and a half without smoking.

I don’t know if I ever told that story or not. If I did I apologize, but I do know that I have told this story on one of old BlogSpot blogs that I hardly use anymore as well as on my vapenet show a time or two. Either way, it is worth repeating now and again just so that those of you out there can relate in your own way (or if you feel like you need a reason to remain active in this community):

When I heard about my Uncle John’s problems with his lung cancer and learning that it had spread to his body pretty quickly prior to his death, I started to research vaping a little more deeply. Crazily enough, my uncle’s diagnosis came at the same time that my mom was diagnosed with her Stage-1 ductal cancer (she’s doing really well by the way).

This is where I started seeing vape channels when I still hung out on http://vaughnlive.tv and kept hearing about these crazy vapers taking over the website (which then led to http://vapers.tv). That was where I discovered two online friends who I was finally able to meet in person at last years (and this year’s) VapeXpo. That’s when I knew I found the right place.

Let’s face it; it’s where I decided to start my hosting gig back after being off for a few months (and after http://www.blogtv.com) got shut down. In addition, the more I started hanging around you guys online the more I really started to dig the community and learn just by the conversations that were going on in different shows. Now, I don’t remember exactly what my first show was that I hung out at, but I think it was ghosting Beauty and the Beast before I actually decided to jump in and chat.

Now, I don’t know if you’ve had this happen to you but, when you first heard about fruit flavors, horchata, or even custards, did you find yourself thinking of foods instead of vaping? If you did, you’re not alone because that’s exactly what I was thinking when I first started hearing about all this stuff. I was like what are they talking about? Is this a cooking channel or something? (Yeah, that’s kind of a noob thought).

In any event, I found myself hanging out at vapenet mostly, but also surfing around and checking out some of the late night shows. This was before I got the full-time job that I have now. It was from there that I started reading up on vaping and how it was helping people. I was also curious as to what people said about 0 nic vaping on forums such as ECF. Unfortunately, I was a little bit intimidated and scared because there were quite a few people who were railing against the fact that you got people vaping merely to support the community or because they didn’t smoke much but still wanted the experience. In fact, I event questioned myself as to whether or not I just walk away from good people and a hobby or just see what this is like, learn about it from the outside and the introduce people who I thought might want a bit of a lifestyle change.

One thing I can tell you, ECF forums with their words of wisdom written in stone do not a vaping community make. With my personal ties already with the vaping community, I decided to ask for opinions and pretty much got and it didn’t matter to me mentality.

However, it wasn’t until my boyfriend got curious hearing me on Skype with him while watching shows that things really took off. AT the time, he was smoking pretty heavily and I have to admit that whenever we met each other, not only would I smell smoke on him and his breathe, but also would have to deal with nasty allergies for about a week after we hung out with each other. Yes my friends, I had been dating a smoker.

In any event, he decided to pop into a chat one day and join me. He just started chatting and asking what was going on. I was even asked if he was serious about getting into vaping because it seemed at the time that some people said they were serious vapers or were newbies but were found out to vaped for a while only to have new stuff. Well, once my boyfriend won his first bottle of juice and got hooked up with a set-up from chatter that night and got it a week later, the rest became history.

Of course, just like a few others who first start out, he was a bit skeptical and for a while he was vaping part time to get used it, but still smoking the cigarettes. This was not something to be ashamed of because that also goes par for the course. Unfortunately, some people feel it’s a bit of a stigma and its defeating the purpose of the vaping lifestyle. Let’s face it, for some people it takes them a while to get off and get used to something they’re not sure of. Some just do it and realize it’s not for them and drop it and others just have it on hand until they feel like their ready. For my boyfriend, it took him at least 6 months or so until he finally decided to stop cigarettes entirely. Granted, once in a while he’d buy a cigarette just to see if he could get still do it. However, once he realized how nasty it was, he realized that he had gotten into the right thing.

Now, he loves going to VapeXpo and can’t wait to go every year with me. He loves meeting people in the flesh that he never dreamed of meeting in person (that goes the same for yours truly as well). In addition, he’s visited a few local vape shops with me and is not afraid to voice his opinion in support of the vaping community.

The moral of the story: If making friends or merely having an interest in the vaping community can convert a smoker or two to vaping, that means the community is on the right track and shouldn’t forget why the vaping is a “community” in the first place.